News

Stilo announces version 3 of AuthorBridge with a live demo broadcast Jan 29, 2019.

Since its inception, AuthorBridge has provided SMEs with a truly unique guided and fluid authoring experience. Specifically designed for users with no knowledge of DITA or XML, it has helped organizations rapidly roll out DITA authoring to non-ID professionals in marketing, engineering, training and support.

To do this well requires sophisticated DITA content processing 'under the hood' and this is where AuthorBridge excels.

AuthorBridge v3 provides

a guidance panel to help SMEs understand what sort of content they are expected to write, and where to put it

change tracking for text and structural changes

review comments

DITA maps presented in a "document" mode with all topic content resolved and editable, and with an outline pane showing the topic hierarchy

TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions, the world’s largest provider of language services and process automation technology to the medical device industry, today announced the introduction of its new EnCompass Rapid Prototyping Program. Specifically designed to demonstrate the benefits of XML content management and process automation (including AI-Assist™), the EnCompass Prototype Program provides manufacturers with a working model of MDR and IVDR content compliance and cost savings.

Great Partners Make Great Solutions
The Rapid Prototyping Program combines validated content management technology from Astoria Software, process automation technology from TransPerfect, critical conversion technology from Stilo and information development services from leading consultant Mekon.

Said Mekon CEO Julian Murfitt, “Our 25 years of expertise with information architecture and automated publishing provides an important benefit for device makers looking to address increased content requirements of MDR and IVDR.”

Added Stilo CEO Les Burnham, “Automated content conversion services are especially important as manufacturers migrate to XML-based systems to support the increased volumes and throughput associated with MDR and IVDR.”

A Cure for the MDR & IVDR Headache
With only 18 months left before full implementation, the EU’s new MDR and IVDR are a source of stress and concern for global device makers. The new regulations span a number of operational areas and, according to industry consultant, Qserve, will increase both the volume and velocity of content that device makers must manage.

According to Marc Miller, Division President of TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions, “Faced with substantially increased content volumes due to MDR and IVDR, structured content and automation technologies are emerging as the key components for an effective compliance strategy.”

About TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions & Astoria SoftwareTransPerfect Medical Device Solutions is the specialized medical device division of TransPerfect, the world's largest provider of language services and process automation technology. From offices in more than 90 cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 certified across all offices. The Medical Device Solutions group is further certified to ISO 13485 and ISO 14971.

Astoria Software is an award-winning solution for enterprise content management and a division of TransPerfect. Astoria delivers the most comprehensive on-demand solution for building, managing, and assembling DITA/XML content to satisfy documentation requirements in the software, hardware, medical device, and other discreet manufacturing sectors.

Stilo International is pleased to announce the availability of a new content optimization service—DITA OptimizeR—that can automatically identify reuse potential across your DITA content, deduplicate topics and update your maps and conref files.

Whether you are embarking on the conversion of your content to DITA for the first time, or have existing DITA content that you would like to evaluate for additional reuse opportunities, then Stilo's DITA OptimizeR can help!

Maximizing content reuse
Content reuse is a fundamental benefit of DITA adoption, providing huge efficiency gains to authoring teams and helping to ensure the consistency of published information across an enterprise.

However, identifying potential reuse opportunities and implementing reuse strategies can be a painstaking and laborious process. As an increasing volume of content is authored in DITA across authoring teams, then invariably more content is replicated over a period of time. Keeping your content optimized for potential reuse should form part of any successful DITA implementation strategy.

With DITA OptimizeR you can

Significantly reduce the amount of content that needs to be maintained on an ongoing basis

Publish more accurate and normalized content, especially important in potentially hazardous and highly regulated environments

Try DITA OptimizeR for free!
We offer a free trial analysis with OptimizeR - simply send us a small sample set of your DITA content, and we will review the results with you. And if you don't yet have your content in DITA, no problem - you can take advantage of our free conversion offer with Migrate.

Stilo International, developers of the AuthorBridge web-based XML editor and Migrate cloud XML conversion service and Componize Software, developers of the Componize Component Content Management System are pleased to announce their partnership and product integration.

Componize is a DITA CMS that optimizes the authoring, management and publishing of high-volume product information such as product documentation or learning content. Combining enterprise-wide collaboration, ease of use, scalability and an open architecture, it provides the full range of features that organizations need today for their structured content strategy.

AuthorBridge is a low-cost, web-based XML editing tool that can be used by subject matter experts with no knowledge of DITA. It was co-developed with IBM, and is complementary to the XML editors traditionally used by technical authors. SMEs are provided with a guidance panel, hover help, in-line assisted text and writing tips to help make structured authoring as intuitive as possible. Through its unique conversion-based architecture, AuthorBridge provides a free-flowing DITA authoring experience, much the same as when authoring in Word.

Stilo and Componize Software will be showcasing this new integration at the 2018 Content Management Strategies/DITA North America Conference in Denver Colorado, April 23-25. Contact us if you would like to schedule a demonstration.

Join Stilo’s Conversion Services Manager, Helen St. Denis, for a demo of the Migrate cloud XML content conversion service. Migrate is a unique cloud service that enables technical authoring teams to automate the conversion of content from various source formats including XML/SGML/HTML, FrameMaker, Word, Author-it, InDesign, RoboHelp and DocBook to DITA and custom XML. It provides greater control over conversion quality, immediate turnaround times and operates on a low-cost, pay-as-you-use basis.

See why Migrate is the conversion service of choice for organizations including Altera, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Extreme Networks, IBM, Qualcomm, Teradata, Varian Medical Systems, Webtrends and many more.

Providing a Guided & Fluid DITA web authoring experience for SMEs from just US$100 per user, per annum

Stilo is pleased to announce a major new release of AuthorBridge, a web authoring tool for subject matter experts that has been developed in close co-operation with the central ID tools team at IBM.

With a beautifully designed user interface, improved CALS table handling, advanced copy & paste support and new review comments feature, AuthorBridge v2.0 can be used by SMEs to easily create and edit DITA topics in a collaborative environment with technical authors.

In addition, AuthorBridge provides high levels of user guidance for SMEs with no knowledge of DITA or XML, and through its unique architecture, it delivers a free-flowing ‘Word-like’ authoring experience, not constrained by the structures of conventional XML editors.

AuthorBridge can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise, using simple file systems, shared repositories such as Git, or integrated with component content management systems (CCMS).

If you missed our live demo of the latest major new release of AuthorBridge – version 2.0, a web authoring tool for SMEs that has been developed in close co-operation with the central ID tools team at IBM – you can access the recording here.

AuthorBridge provides high levels of user guidance for SMEs with no knowledge of DITA or XML, and through its unique architecture, it delivers a free-flowing ‘Word-like’ authoring experience, not constrained by the structures of conventional XML editors.

Stilo has extended the range of conversion options for its cloud XML content conversion service, Migrate, adding support for documents authored in Author-it.

Migrate DITA can be used to convert content from various source formats, including:

Author-it

Custom SGML/XML

DocBook

FrameMaker

InDesign

RoboHelp

MS Word

With Migrate, documentation teams can directly manage the conversion of their content to DITA, on-demand, 24/7. Using the Migrate Rules Editor, authors can control the topic types, the DITA map, metadata, chunking, related links, and much more by creating or modifying the conversion rules, incrementally improving the quality of the automated conversion.

Migrate places subject matter experts in complete control of the conversion process. Documentation teams can operate at their own pace, work collaboratively, fix problems themselves, and avoid the churn and delays otherwise involved when liaising with outside vendors.

Migrate can be used to convert a single document, with Stilo operating the service, or by global documentation teams that need to convert tens of thousandsof pages of legacy content, on-demand, according to their own project deadlines.

We have helped our customers convert more than a million pages of legacy content to DITA XML. Customers include Altera, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Extreme Networks, Qualcomm, Teradata, Varian Medical Systems, Webtrends and many more.

Stilo is pleased to announce that its presentation with IBM’s Mike Iantosca has been accepted onto the conference program for CMS/DITA North America 2016, April 4-6 in Reston, Virginia.

The presentation will take place on Monday, April 4 at 2.35pm as part of the Information Design & Development Track, with a feature on Lightweight DITA.

Intelligent Content Authoring for Everyone

The power of intelligent content becomes possible only when that intelligence is intentionally injected, most often in the form of structure and descriptive semantics. That intelligence helps machines do their automated magic. Most often, the needed structure and semantics are added by humans during content authoring. Content management, for both content development and delivery, generally becomes more powerful, flexible, and valuable with the growth of structure and semantics–but at the price of complexity and required skills for content creators. Structured content authoring tools have advanced, masking some of that complexity, but even so-called lightweight and tag-less authoring tools leave gaps for diverse content creators and contributors, making intelligent content component strategies for the enterprise an elusive proposition.

What can the audience expect to learn?

Iantosca lays out a multi-tier strategy for addressing the needs of organizations with diverse authoring roles and skills, from professional content creators through casual contributors.

Meet the presenters

Mike Iantosca
A member of the IBM corporate leadership team for Information Development and Digital Services, Mike Iantosca manages an industry-leading portfolio of authoring and content management tools and systems used to create, manage, and publish more than 200 million pages of client-facing content in dozens of national languages for thousands of IBM products. With more than 30 years of structured content authoring and management design and development experience, Mike has the overall responsibility for the planning, design, development, and delivery of solutions that support a wide range of content creators, including thousands of professional product Information Developers, technical editors, Information Architects, globalization professionals, contributors, OEMs and IBM Business Partners.

Patrick Baker
As VP, Development and Professional Services, Patrick Baker heads all new product development at Stilo and is actively engaged in the successful deployment of content processing solutions for publishing clients. Major ongoing product development efforts include OmniMark, the leading high-performance content processing platform, and Migrate, the world’s first cloud XML content conversion service. Patrick has been associated with best practices for complex content processing for over a decade and has successfully delivered custom solutions on behalf of organizations in the automotive, airline, defence, and commercial publishing sectors.

With a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from McGill University, Patrick leads an expert team of highly talented content processing specialists.

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About Stilo International

Stilo International (LSE:STL) are the developers of Migrate, the leading cloud XML content conversion service, OmniMark, the high-performance XML/SGML content processing platform and AuthorBridge, a Guided + Fluid DITA authoring solution for SMEs and occasional contributors.

Operating from offices in the UK and Canada, we support commercial publishers, technology companies and government agencies around the world.